Joanie Loves Chachi Boned the Fish When...

[TMC]

http://www.bonethefish.com/viewtopics.php?2029

Joanie Loves Chachi was TV spin-off of the popular American sitcom Happy Days that was originally broadcast on ABC from March 23, 1982 to September 13, 1983. The series followed the exploits of Joanie and Chachi as they moved to Chicago and tried to make it on their own with a rock band and a music career.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070225...ptheshark.com/

• Other Thoughts:
  
  The title says it all.
  Perhaps this is the worst spin-off of a successful television series. Who told Scott Baio he could sing. This show was just plain bad.
  "...Starring Scott Baio..."
  This was the most god-awful piece of crap I ever saw. How was this ever considered to be a show that anyone in their right mind would watch. This **** should never have been aired.
  Joanie may have loved Chachi, but nobody else on the face of the earth did.
  When the most annoying character on "Happy Days" gets his own show, you should run for the hills. Other than that, it was okay.
  Supposedly, the first episode of Joanie Loves Chachi was #1 in Korea, because "Chachi" is Korean for "penis". Now what's America's excuse for letting this crappy show run as long as it did?
  The Theme Song ruined this show from day 1: Joanie & Chachi singing to each other? Come on. They have possibly the worst voices on TV.
  Joanie Loves Chachi will always rock! So there.
  It jumped the shark when the parent show, Happy Days, was still using Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" for its opening theme.
  I never saw it had 2 B dumb. Perhaps as great as Leave a Beaver.
  WHY OH WHY do t.v. producers have to be so greedy. All this show was made for was to make some brain-dead Hollywood jack-off rich. They tried to capitalize on a once successful show (Happy Days). The fact this crappy show even made it out of production shows you how t.v. sucked in the'80's. I HATED Chachi from day one on (un)Happy Days. Looking back, it's no wonder Erin Moran became mentally unstable, after starring in this show. This one is in the worst t.v. show hall-of-shame.
  OK, the show was doomed from the start! Take the two least interesting characters from "Crappy Days" and give them a show--and watch it bomb! Seriously, what were they thinking. I had the (dis)pleasure to see only one episode--it involved an overweight, unattractive girl who has a father who is constantly making fat jokes about her. At the end he said he only told the jokes because he thought she wouldn't mind and he really does loves her! GAG!!!! First off, the audience was laughing at all the horrible fat jokes directed at this poor girl by her FATHER. Then at the end, they try to justify it by saying, hey her father was only kidding--it's just a joke! So let's insult overweight people and condescend to them too! TV writing doesn't get lower than this. A true abomination.
  This show was pathetic. Talk about lack of imagination by the producers. How long did it take to come up with that catchy title? And Scott Baio wearing a bandana around his leg...was he a heroin addict?...what the hell was that all about. I wouldn't have watched this show if it were XXX.
  Scott Baio "singing". He cannot carry a tune at ALL! Granted, Erin Moran is not the second coming of Karen Carpenter, but at least she could carry a tune. Yeesh! On the upside, Erin Moran is a doll. I wrote to her not too long ago, and she wrote me a letter and also sent me a beautiful autographed picture. It's nice to know some TV stars don't forget the fans. Erin, I love you and always will!
  the shark actually ate the brains of the pinhead creator while he was thinking this one up.
  Spinoffs are jumpers before they start. The fact that this show spun off of the show that coined the "jump the shark" phrase, this one should be king of all jumpers.Who would believe that Scott Baio would EVER go for Erin Moran? Yikes!
  Joanie was and is and will always be a freak with that hair- man were Jeri curls on white girls big in the 50's or did I miss something? And I seem to remember some blond ***** in the band jamming guitar "solos" about 10 years before the music the band they were in became even halfway accepted (albeit the music they played was so cheesy it would make the Styx look respectable) Mr and Mrs C must have gone back from visiting those 2 and pleaded with the Fonz "to get out there and save Joanie- she's gone off the deep end from living with Penis and she might hurt someone!!!"
  This show was in the shark pit when Fonzie was flying over it!! The creators had all kinds of possibilities with the cast of characters on Happy Days. If the show was "Joanie loves Jenny Piccalo" or "Joanie loves Pinky Tuscadero" who wouldn't watch. I guess the absence of black people on Happy Days ruled out Joanie and tabau love, but how about "Joanie loves lost brother Chuck", they could move to W. Virginia, the storylines would have been endless!!
  Anyone who can make it through the opening credits with Chachi's largyntic seal crooning deserves a ticker-tape parade! Anachronisms were aplenty what with Chachi's feathered shag, Joanie's perm. But let's not forget their drummer Bingo- ,shagged perm,Hawaiian shirt, shorts and sandals- in early 1960's Chicago?! I don't think so. He'd have either been beaten up or frostbitten! Why couldn't the producers have told these so-called stars to wear period clothes,get period hairstyles/endure wigs during filming or else they'd find some desperate unemployed actors who'd make these small efforts to fit in the time period-at half their astronomical salaries!
  Well, I liked HAPPY DAYS, but JOANIE LOVES CHACHI jumped from day one. Except for Fraiser (from CHEERS), supporting characters just don't do well in series of their own. Flo (Polly Holliday from ALICE), Gloria Bunker (Sally Struthers from ALL IN THE FAMILY) and Grady Wilson (Whitman Mayo from SANFORD & SON) are but three other examples. Joanie and Chachi just weren't interesting enough as people for me to care much about what happened to them in Chicago. BTW--here's something that's insignificant, but worth mentioning: there was one episode of JLC where Chachi praises Joanie for being such a "great chef." Joanie laughs this off by saying something like, "but Chachi, all I've ever cooked is TV dinners." This is a contradiction: I seem to remember a HAPPY DAYS episode (during the dire, post-Richie years) where Shortcake made lasagna for 'ol Chachi boy. I'm no cook, but I do know from word of mouth that lasagna is not the easiest of dishes to prepare--did Joanie's brain cells freeze during the trip from Milwaukee to Chicago? I guess the scriptwriters didn't care about continuity. Finally, to the posters who commented on Scott Baio's singing: the future BEFORE THEY WERE STARS host "recorded" and "released" two David Cassidy-esque albums during the early '80s. How were they? Let's put it this way: DR. DEMENTO played one of the songs on an episode of his radio show which dealt with "actors who shouldn't sing" or something like that. That should tell you all you need to know. PEACE!
  Who told Scott Baio he could sing? Who told Scott Baio he could act? A terrible sappy spin-off from Happy Day's that never should have aired. How the hell did Baio ever land all those hot blond bimbos, like Pamela Lee, Heather Locklear, and Nicole Eggert? I think he was boning Eggert when she was a minor, and it is a shame that statutory rape charges weren't brought up against him. Baio is basically just a raspy voiced, shaggy haired, New York Dago, and his 15 minutes of fame is long over. Baio was also terrible on Happy Days and Chuck in Charge. Hell, Willie Aames and the old pervert Uncle on Chuck in Charge could act circles around Baio the Wop. Baio is about 2 months and 1 late car payment away from signing autographs at those lame old has-been shows, where losers like Eddie Haskell and Eddie Munster will gladly take a photo with you for $5.
  This show was useless except for the Beatles episode, which I loved. Joanie meets a British guy hospitalized for exhaustion, and decides he`s really Paul McCartney because the guy`s name (which I confess I`ve forgotten) has 13 letters, as does "Paul McCartney". She should have had her own detective show with such brilliant powers of deduction!
  This had to be the ABSOLUTE worst show I had ever seen in my life, in all my 39 years. What a crass idea to spin this off from HD (Happy Days) and put THEM two together!! What about Joanie Loves Potsie? Joanie Loves Ralph? Joanie Loves Everybody! What a crock of a show this was indeed.
  Anyone who says that My Mother the Car was the worst television program of all time has not seen this stinky nugget of a show. The network executive who thought a Happy Days spinoff starring the terminally annoying Scott Baio would be a good idea should be given a good beating, then tarred and feathered. Truly 70s programming at its worst.
  Scott Baio...need I say more? "LOOOOOK AAAT MEEE..." What did he do, show a network executive his chachi to get this role? Apparently we're not convinced of how much Scott Baio sucks, so let's give him ANOTHER TV series...and let's make him a male babysitter! I certainly never wanted Charles in charge of ME, nor did I need to know how much Joanie Loves Chachi!
  Thank you for reminding me of this stellar television gem. Yes, that is sarcasm. I hated both Joanie and Chachi when they were on Happy Days. When I saw that they had their own spin off, I was just plain mortified. The title of the show has got to be one the dumbest in TV history. And really, once you see the title, the rest is pretty much downhill. I saw the first episode. I'm surprised that my eyes didn't burn out.
  Even though Joanie was present at the beginning of "Happy Days," the "familiar to unfamiliar" scenario doesn't even apply here. With "Happy Days" now past its turning point, Ron Howard's swan song, no new spin-offs would have worked. The romance between Joanie and Chachi was now one of the focal points of the fading "Happy Days." It wasn't enough to carry an established show, let alone a new one. "Joanie Loves Chachi" stands as a shining example of an idea that's better off remaining an idea.
  I WAS WORKING IN AN AUTO PARTS STORE WHEN THIS ZENITH OF TELEVISION BRILLIANCE HIT THE AIRWAVES, AND I CAN REMEMBER COMING TO WORK THE NEXT DAY AND TELLING ONE OF MY FELLOW COUNTERMEN ABOUT THE PAIL OF DOG SPEW I VIEWED ON TV THE NIGHT BEFORE, AT WHICH POINT HE YELLED, "JOANIE LOVES CHACHI! I SAW IT TOO!". AT LEAST IT GAVE US SOMETHING TO MAKE FUN OF UNTIL THE FREIGHT TRUCK ARRIVED.
  To add to what others have said about that ANNOYING bowl-cut job Scott Baio wore throughout both this short-lived disaster and “Crappy Days”; another thing the producers seemed to overlook was what Chachi and Fonzies’ grandmother would have had to say about him in the episode or two she appeared in. They totally ignored her generation’s moral obligation to be conservative and fearful of looking or being “different”. If she was as traditional or “respectable” as she was made out to be she would have been on Chachi’s case CONSTANTLY to get a haircut! As if his not doing so would have been a commentary on her principles personally. Believe me, tough-guy image or not unless he didn’t want to be alienated from her anymore he wouldn’t have gotten off the hook that easily!
  This show never had a chance. It was more than we wanted to know about the Happy Days family. They should have seriously stopped.
  One of the worst sitcoms ever. Bad idea that jumped from day one. Once again, Joanie and Chachi were supporting characters who were not charismatic enough to carry a show by themselves. Watching Erin Moran and Scott Baio together was like watching paint dry.
  P.U., what a stinker of a show! Giving Scott Baio (the most annoying "Happy Days" character) his own show as a singer was an idea that should have stayed an idea. This show never JTS because it was plain bad from the get-go. After 17 episodes, ABC mercifully pulled the plug and let Joanie and Chachi return to "Happy Days", which was on its last legs by then.
  The First Episode. Baio and Moran's attempt at singing didn't make it in 1982, let alone 1964. Not only that, the actors playing the backup group with the exception of the drummer, lacked personality.
  This show is a total Spin-Awful!From the too-contemporary and un-sixties theme song to the ludicrous plots...not one redeeming feature.And who told them they could sing?My sister had a crush on Scott Baio until she heard him sing-well,there was another adolescent infatuation shot to hell!!
  The writing of Joanie Love Chachi was pretty bad. I believe at the time I didn't notice how bad it was because I had such a cruch on Scott Baio ( yes even through the long episodes of Charles In Charge) One thing I can say is that the lyrics of the theme song has always stuck with me and I am using them in wedding. I also liked hearing Scott sing. Yes Erin sounded better I believe, but Scott looked good singing them. To all of those back in those days who had to put up with what I must now admit was a hoorible show I apologize profusely, after all it was pubescent chicks like me who kept the show on for two seasons. Teen Hormones whatcha gonna do?

[Race's Girl]

Joanie may love Chachi but...Unfortunately no one loved this show